Fact Sheet

2013 COPS Hiring Program 

Strengthening Community Policing by Hiring Officers

The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) is designed to advance public safety through 

community policing by addressing the full-time sworn officer needs of state, local, and 

tribal law enforcement agencies nationwide. Approximately $127 million in grant funding 

was appropriated for this initiative through the fiscal year (FY) 2013 Full-Year Continuing 

Appropriations Act. CHP provides funds directly to law enforcement agencies to hire new 

and/or rehire career law enforcement officers, and to increase their community policing 

capacity and crime prevention efforts.

The FY2013 CHP grant program was an open solicitation. All local, state, and tribal law 

enforcement agencies that have primary law enforcement authority were eligible to apply.

Supporting Local Law Enforcement

More than 15 years after the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 

was signed into law, the COPS Office continues to support the efforts of law enforcement 

agencies across the country as they develop creative and innovative ways to deal with 

long-standing community problems and public safety issues. To date, the COPS Office 

has funded the addition of more than 125,000 officers to more than 13,000 state, local, 

and tribal law enforcement agencies to advance community policing in small and large 

jurisdictions across the nation.

CHP is one of several hiring programs developed by the COPS Office since its inception 

to support law enforcement. This is particularly important in the current economy as state, 

local, and tribal law enforcement agencies embrace the challenges of keeping communities 

safe while maintaining sufficient sworn personnel levels.

Grant Program Funding Provisions

In FY2013, the COPS Office awarded $127 million in CHP grants to 266 law enforcement 

agencies to hire and/or rehire 955 full-time career law enforcement officers. CHP grants 

provide up to 75 percent of the approved entry-level salaries and fringe benefits of fulltime officers for a 36-month grant period, with a minimum 25 percent local cash match 

requirement and a maximum federal share of $125,000 per officer position. These grants 

may be used on or after the official grant award start date to: (1) hire new officer 

positions, which includes filling existing officer vacancies that are no longer funded in an 

agency’s budget; (2) rehire officers laid off by any jurisdiction as a result of state, local, or 

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) budget cuts; or (3) rehire officers who were, at the time of 

grant application, scheduled to be laid off (by your jurisdiction) on a specific future date as a 

result of state, local, or BIA budget cuts.

“We are pleased to partner with 

local law enforcement in their efforts 

to enhance public safety through 

community policing.” 

Joshua A. Ederheimer, Acting Director

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

www.cops.usdoj.gov

Below are a variety of resources to better enable 

law enforcement agencies to recruit, hire, and retain 

officers, especially School Resource Officers (SRO).

•	 COPS Video Cast – Hiring in the Spirit of Service 

King County Sheriff Sue Rahr explains how her 

agency’s involvement in the “Hiring in the Spirit 

of Service” program helped aid organizational 

transformation and drastically improved recruiting 

and retention. http://cops.usdoj.gov/html/

COPSMediaCenter/index.html

•	 Innovations in Police Recruitment and Hiring 

– Hiring in the Spirit of Service discusses how 

agencies met their goals of hiring service-oriented 

recruits, the challenges encountered as well 

as lessons learned. http://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-CD021

•	 Law Enforcement Recruitment Toolkit developed 

by the International Association of Chiefs of Police 

(IACP) comprises four reports, each focusing on a 

different area of recruitment. This toolkit is one step 

among many in addressing the recruitment needs of 

the field. The issues of police recruitment, selection, 

and retention are critical to the advancement 

of community policing and the policing 

profession in general. http://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-P171

•	 Discover Policing This website offers first-hand 

descriptions of law enforcement work and provides 

opportunities for potential recruits and agencies to 

connect. www.discoverpolicing.org
CHP grant funding is based on an agency’s entry-level full-time sworn officer salary and 

fringe benefits at the time of updated grant application. Any additional costs for higher 

than entry-level salaries and fringe benefits are the responsibility of the grantee agency. All 

agencies’ awards were capped at no more than 5 percent of their actual sworn force strength 

as reported in their application, up to a maximum of 10 officers for agencies that serve a 

population less than 1 million, and up to a maximum of 15 officers for agencies that serve a 

population of 1 million or more. Additionally, the request of any agency with a sworn force 

strength less than or equal to 20 was capped at one officer.

The COPS Office granted more than 30 waivers of some or all of an applicant’s local cash 

match requirement. Requests for waivers were evaluated during the application review 

process based on a demonstration of severe fiscal distress. 

The COPS Office statutory nonsupplanting requirement mandates that CHP funds be 

used to supplement (increase) state, local, or BIA funds that would have been dedicated 

toward sworn officer positions even if federal funding had not been awarded. CHP grant 

funds must not be used to supplant (replace) local funds that agencies otherwise would 

have devoted to sworn officer hiring. The hiring or rehiring of officers under CHP must be 

in addition to, and not in lieu of, officers who otherwise would have been hired or rehired 

with state, local, or BIA funds.

At the conclusion of 36 months of federal funding, grantees must retain all sworn officer 

positions awarded under the CHP grant for a minimum of 12 months. The retained 

CHP-funded position(s) should be added to the grantee’s law enforcement budget with 

state and/or local funds, over and above the number of locally-funded positions that would 

have existed in the absence of the grant. Applicants were required to affirm in their CHP 

grant application that their agency plans to retain any additional officer positions awarded 

following the expiration of the grant and identify their planned source(s) of retention 

funding.

Since its creation in 1994, the COPS Office has also dedicated significant grant funding 

to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies nationwide to deploy School Resource 

Officers (SRO) and establish school safety programs. Starting in 2011, CHP has allowed 

agencies to hire officers to address specific problem areas. Under FY2011 and FY2012 

CHP, the COPS Office provided nearly $60 million in hiring funds to agencies that 

identified the need for school-based policing. In FY2013, 144 grantees committed to 

deploying 370 SRO positions through school-based policing. The COPS Office requires 

all grantees who chose “School Based Policing through School Resource Officers” as 

their community policing problem on their 2013 CHP applications to provide contact 

information for each school partner where they intend to deploy SROs. These grantees are 

also required to submit to the COPS Office a Memorandum of Understanding between the 

law enforcement agency and their school partner(s) before drawing down funds.

Contact the COPS Office

For more information about the COPS Hiring Program, please call the COPS Office 

Response Center at 800-421-6770, or visit COPS Online at www.cops.usdoj.gov.

October 2013

•	 Police Recruitment and Retention for the New 

Millennium summarizes for police practitioners 

lessons on recruiting and retaining diverse, 

effective workforces. It provides a means for 

local officials to identify what has been tried 

elsewhere and what might be applicable in their 

own communities. http://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-P199

•	 Today’s Police and Sheriff Recruits provides 

the results of a recruit assessment conducted by 

RAND, including both findings about the overall 

sample as well as those focused on groups 

often of particular interest to law enforcement 

recruitment professionals. http://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-W0592

•	 Assigning Police Officers to Schools Nearly 

half of all public schools have assigned police 

officers, commonly referred to as school resource 

officers (SRO) or education officers. This publication 

summarizes the typical duties of SROs, synthesizes 

the research pertaining to their effectiveness, 

and presents issues for communities to bear 

in mind when considering the adoption of 

an SRO model. http://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-P182

•	 School Safety (CD-ROM) provides more than 110 

documents and links related to school violence, 

gangs, bullying, and property crime as a resource 

to local policymakers, law enforcement, school 

administrators, parents, and students. Bullying, 

stalking, and other interpersonal crimes affect 

our nation’s children at an alarming rate. As such, 

School Safety provides resources on bullying and 

interpersonal violence, youth violence prevention, 

alcohol and substance abuse, community 

partnerships, property crime and nuisance 

violations, school resource officers, and emergency 

preparedness and management. http://ric-zai-inc.

com/ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-CD010

Additional COPS Office publications and resources 

are posted online at www.cops.usdoj.gov.